Commuters: I feel your pain.

Hey guys. Andy here with another blog. I am dedicating this blog entry to the commuters of UMass Lowell. It's a little bit of a rant, but bare with me if you will.

First off, let me be the first to say that I love UMass Lowell. It's the perfect university for me. But everyone knows there are flaws to every school. Unfortunately, UMass Lowell has an annoying flaw, which is parking.

In the summer, the university promoted the additional parking spaces they were going to install. I was actually very happy that they were addressing the issue, as many other commuters were not satisfied with the limited parking spaces near campus. The first day, I went in very excited, at 9:40 AM, thinking I'm going to get a nice parking spot at north (I think it's called riverside). To my disappointment and surprise, there were absolutely none available! To make matters worse, there was a guy handing out flyers that pretty much didn't help with anything. It was a map of the campus and such.

Now let me make it clear that I understand that UMass Lowell is a commuter-heavy school. However, for north campus commuters, it is quite annoying to come half an hour early just to find a parking spot. Not to mention walking to the campus is time consuming if there are no spots available at riverside.

We all pay similar amounts for parking, and it's no pocket money. Why should some of the commuters have to suffer because their classes may be later than others? Some people may not think it's a big deal, but conflicts such as this could easily ruin one's day.

I've been hearing professors complain of their parking spaces too. The whole system is flawed, for both students and teachers alike. There has to be a better system where commuters won't have to worry about finding a parking spot first thing in the morning, or being late for class.

By the way, why are the parking decals not coming early enough? For people who have ordered it online, you were probably told that you will receive in the mail by a certain date, and if it doesn't come by then, you have to actually go in to solve the conflict. Another small, yet time consuming process.

You probably have heard other commuters talk as emotionally as I do about parking. I may not be the most intelligent student on campus, but it doesn't take a brilliant soul to realize that the parking system is flawed. That's just my little rant for the day.

Thanks for reading. Until next time, stay safe and don't get too frustrated if there are no parking spots! You will eventually find one...a bit away from the campus.

-[Pessimistic?!] Andy

1 Comments

Good rant! At my University the parking is in a similar state of disarray. 820 stalls were added 3 years ago for students and it was heavily promoted and used as a major bragging point in the Uni-world. What they didn't tell anyone was that 1200 student stalls in another lot were re-zoned as faculty parking. Net loss of 380 student parking stalls. Administration FAIL! Anyway, I feel your pain. :)

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